Letting Go of Hope
"Letting Go of Hope", also titled "SONIC: Letting Go of Hope", is a fanfiction originally written by Comix28 and adopted by Loor101. The series was originally published in the early 2000's on Fanfiction.net, where it went up to twelve chapters before it was remade and continued as a narration on Youtube, complete with voice actors, a narrator, sound effects, and read-along text. The story is set in the ''Sonic X ''continuity and proposes a darker turn of events after Chaos Control sends Sonic and co. to Earth. Rather than Sonic meeting Chris and starting his adventures with the rest of his friends, Sonic is instead captured by an illegal animal testing facility, where he is kept in a warehouse for study. Plot After Sonic is transported to Earth, two men from an illegal testing facility find him unconscious on the street and take him to the warehouse. In another area, Chris finds Tails and offers to let him stay with him at his mansion. Chris informs Tails that he can't be seen by the public, as it would put him in danger. Tails asks Chris for help in finding the rest of his friends. Back in the facility, Sonic wakes up and initially believes he's been caught by Dr. Eggman, but soon discovers that he's been captured by humans from another world. He has been fitted with an identification tag around his neck and is surrounded by mutated and sickly animals. After Sonic meets Dr. Cameron, the sadistic head of the facility and the main antagonist of the story, he manages to escape from his cage but is quickly taken down by the warehouse staff, who wield tranquilizers. Dr. Cameron approaches Jade, a young veterinarian, and requests that she take a look at their newest acquisition. Upon being presented with the unconscious hedgehog, she begins to wonder what she's gotten herself into. In another part of the city, Knuckles and Amy navigate the alleyways and wonder if the others were transported to Earth as well. When Sonic reawakens again, he finds a clipboard hanging on the side of his cage with new information. Further, he discovers he's been physically tampered with; bits of fur are missing, and there are small holes in his skin where needles were inserted. The scientists open a small hatch at the bottom of his cage and place a food bowl inside, which contains small pellets. Sonic tries a few and immediately refuses to eat them. Jade watches Sonic as he constructs the word "Yuck!" out of the pellets and comes to the realization that he has intellect comparable to that of a human. Out of curiosity, she places a hand on the glass of Sonic's cage, who visibly darkens at her approach and turns away from her. She feels sympathy for Sonic and decides she'd like to help him. Later, Dr. Cameron and some of the warehouse staff have a meeting regarding Sonic, who has become sluggish and still refuses to eat. Dr. Cameron states he will have Jade treat him should he exhibit any signs of sickness. After nightfall, Jade sneaks into Sonic's cell with a bag of bread and offers it to Sonic, who rejects taking anything from Jade out of distrust. Despite Sonic's silence and Jade's reassurance that she wouldn't hurt or test on him, Jade doesn't relent in her quest to help Sonic and places the bread in his lap. She also places a cup on the floor to give Sonic the opportunity to drink from it, should he want to. She asks him some questions about where he was from and what he was, which he refuses to answer. She takes her leave, stating that Sonic looks like he could use a friend. Sonic tells himself that he doesn't want new friends and simply wants to return home. In the morning, Jade finds that Sonic is still leaning against the glass in the same position she saw him last and feels her heart break for him. It is heavily implied that Sonic cried during the night, and she promises to visit him again after nightfall. Dr. Cameron, however, approaches her and tells her that Sonic will be brought to her momentarily for a booster shot. Jade asks Dr. Cameron to reconsider, as they don't know enough about his biological makeup and a booster shot could very well do more harm than good. Dr. Cameron scolds her for speaking out against his orders, and after apologizing, she waits in the infirmary. A large guard brings Sonic into the room, who is yelling and calling out snide remarks. After the guard straps Sonic down onto the examination table, Jade tells the guard to leave. Once she and Sonic are alone, she attempts to gain Sonic's trust once more, but he remains silent again and refuses to cooperate. She finds two tranquilizing darts in his legs and deduces he had tried to escape again, so she removes them to help Sonic regain feeling in his legs. She prepares a needle with the booster shot, but instead of injecting it into Sonic, she drains the contents of the needle down the sink, stating that she doesn't want to make Sonic sick. Sonic finally decides to open up to her and tells her his name. Jade undos the straps holding Sonic down, allowing him to sit up. When he questions why he's helping her, she explains that she is a veterinarian and wouldn't torture anyone, even if her life depended on it. The guard comes back in and literally throws Sonic into his cage. Jade promises to help him escape. A week passes and Jade and Sonic become close friends. She frequently brings him food at night and is gentle with him during examinations and works around Dr. Cameron's orders in her efforts to spare him from Dr. Cameron's experiments. After Sonic grows impatient and has an outburst with Jade, she tells him that the time to escape will come soon. She hastily leaves, as it was 4AM in the morning and she had to head home to get some sleep. In the morning, she arrives to the warehouse late and finds that Sonic is missing from his cage. In a rush, she finds Dr. Cameron and questions about Sonic's whereabouts. He reveals that he's switched physicians on Sonic, as the staff members had pointed out Jade was becoming too close to Sonic and would not be happy with the next experiments that were to be performed. Further, Dr. Cameron had not been seeing specific results from the previous experiments, which had led him to believe that Jade had not been carrying them out correctly. She pleads with Dr. Cameron to let her see Sonic one last time, and after a moment's hesitation, he allows her to. She quickly heads to the infirmary Sonic is in and stands outside the door, waiting to hear Sonic speak. All she hears are snickers and bits of laughter, but nothing from Sonic. Her fear pushes her to open the door and demand to see him, and though the guards give her attitude, they eventually move aside to reveal Sonic on an infirmary table, shivering violently and having a hard time breathing. Jade demands to know what the doctor injected him with, but they don't give her an answer. She takes Sonic and, which martial arts and a tranquilizer gun, manages to escape the facility with him in her arms. She is pursued through the surrounding forest by the guards, but they turn back once she jumps off a cliff and into a lake with Sonic. Once they are alone, she checks Sonic and finds he is still having a severely adverse reaction to whatever drug they'd injected into him. She forces him to throw up, and afterwards he is much more stable and can breathe normally. Despite his willingness to escape the forest and get as far away as possible, Jade tells him he needs to rest, and he immediately complies by falling asleep in her lap. She picks him and up travels through the surrounding forest to make some distance between herself and the warehouse.